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720 GMAT - From 500 to 720 (Q48,V41 :: 95%)


TBAY

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nks

 

Thanks Charu. I used to repeat that quote from your Sig over and over. Do you still have those notes that you made for studying CR(from Powerscore)? I remember reading one of your posts where you made a study sheet and I thought that it was very helpful. If you still have that, will you post it in this thread?

 

I'm not uploading the notes over again but just giving the reference to the thread in which I posted them earlier.

 

http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gmat-critical-reasoning/57970-cr-notes-logical-reasoning-bible.html

 

HTH future GMAT test takers !!!

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TBAY,

 

That was an amazing debrief. I am just about to embark on this journey with little confidence but a lot of determination. I haven't taken the diagnostic yet but i can only imagine I will fall into the 300+ region. I shouldn't even try but I will. I start tomorrow, August 1st, 2007.

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For some reason I cannot upload the verbal files, I received an error message on my 2nd attempt. If anyone needs them, simply post your email (or send me a PM) and I'll mail them to you. Here are Charu's CR notes. They were helpful.
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TBAY,

 

That was an amazing debrief. I am just about to embark on this journey with little confidence but a lot of determination. I haven't taken the diagnostic yet but i can only imagine I will fall into the 300+ region. I shouldn't even try but I will. I start tomorrow, August 1st, 2007.

 

If you start off with the right material (I sent you a few nice documents) and with intensity, you will see yourself improve at an unreal pace. I was scoring in the mid 30's in Quant early on, but when I began using this site every day, I saw my scores increase to mid 40's. Treat this test as a challenge and don't get discouraged by low practice test scores. I don't believe that this is a test of intelligence. If it were, I would've scored in the 500's. Instead, your score will positively correlate with the amount of effort that you put into your studying. Keep track of the Qs that you miss so that you can go back to them during the late stages of your prep and test yourself again. Practice your weak areas because the GMAT will test them. My weak area was Venn Diagram Qs. I worked hard on them (I received some great advice from the site) and I saw 3 of them on my test. Go hard out of the gate and you'll be fine.

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TBAY,

 

I am doing CR from The Next Ten Official LSATs but have realised that the subject matter of the CRs for LSAT and GMAT is very different. Is the GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible that good? I have a month for my test. Would you recommend buying this book?

 

Also I am uploading Clintonn's summary doc.

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TBAY,

 

I am doing CR from The Next Ten Official LSATs but have realised that the subject matter of the CRs for LSAT and GMAT is very different. Is the GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible that good? I have a month for my test. Would you recommend buying this book?

 

Also I am uploading Clintonn's summary doc.

 

@Lorelai: I can definitely endorse the Critical Reasoning Bible. I believe that after you go through the sections in the book, and do all of the problem sets included, you will build your confidence and be able to conquer any CR that the test throws at you. Along with the book, practice the verbal SETS. By doing the SETS, you see many different types of CRs--from bold faced to fill-in-the-blank questions. The level of difficulty is heightened when dealing with verbal SETS also. I also practiced GPREP repeatedly and I saw the type of "hard bin" questions that the test would throw at me. I KNOW that your hit rate will improve after using that book. Some on this site have stated that the CR Bible is to CRs as the Manahattan Sentence Correction book is the SCs; I would have to agree.

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@TBAY

Where can i find CR bible ?

Thanks,

 

I believe that I bought mine from Amazon.com. You can also check out the company's website: PowerScore® | Ultimate Test Preparation.

 

As I mentioned in earlier posts, my hit rate was, on average, about 50%. After going through the book, completing the problem sets and practicing the SETS, I was missing 2 CRs (at the most) by my last week of prep. I know that if I had focused on verbal as much as I focused on quant on my last attempt, I would've scored higher than v41. This books gives you the most powerful thing that you could ask for going into the test: CONFIDENCE!

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tbay, congrats on the great improvement. Can you please tell me more about bellcurves? I am struggling to improve my math. Does the site have many tough problems and also build your speed? Do the problems prepare you for the problems on the actual Gmat? Are they quite similar in wording and function? Thanks man appreciate it.
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tbay, congrats on the great improvement. Can you please tell me more about bellcurves? I am struggling to improve my math. Does the site have many tough problems and also build your speed? Do the problems prepare you for the problems on the actual Gmat? Are they quite similar in wording and function? Thanks man appreciate it.

 

The site has plenty of tough problems that will prepare you for the GMAT. My quant rose from Q41 to Q48 by using bellcurves. I already knew the material, but I became more comfortable and confident by going through the questions and drills on the site. Last I checked you were at Q46. The questions on the GMAT (at least my test) were not on TM's level. To increase your score, you really must understand the concept being tested--and bellcurves did that for me. You literally begin to see problems differently and you cut out 2-3 steps. I didn't believe that I was making any progress on the site until I took a practice test about 2 weeks after using it. I scored Q50 (I saw a few repeats), but that wasn't the impressive part. What impressed me was that I could see the mistakes that I would've made had I not been practicing the way that I had been. The tricks that the GMAT used became obvious and I was able to move past them and into the harden bin Qs. Once you progress into that zone you'll be fine because you're practicing on this site. You have to knock down the "middle" questions to makeit there though.

 

I highly recommend it (in conjunction with TM of course) to those who are stuggling in the quant area. The exercises help you really LEARN the concepts and develop a new way to think about attacking problems. Let me know whether you have anymore quastions.

 

Tbay

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The site has plenty of tough problems that will prepare you for the GMAT. My quant rose from Q41 to Q48 by using bellcurves. I already knew the material, but I became more comfortable and confident by going through the questions and drills on the site. Last I checked you were at Q46. The questions on the GMAT (at least my test) were not on TM's level. To increase your score, you really must understand the concept being tested--and bellcurves did that for me. You literally begin to see problems differently and you cut out 2-3 steps. I didn't believe that I was making any progress on the site until I took a practice test about 2 weeks after using it. I scored Q50 (I saw a few repeats), but that wasn't the impressive part. What impressed me was that I could see the mistakes that I would've made had I not been practicing the way that I had been. The tricks that the GMAT used became obvious and I was able to move past them and into the harden bin Qs. Once you progress into that zone you'll be fine because you're practicing on this site. You have to knock down the "middle" questions to makeit there though.

 

I highly recommend it (in conjunction with TM of course) to those who are stuggling in the quant area. The exercises help you really LEARN the concepts and develop a new way to think about attacking problems. Let me know whether you have anymore quastions.

 

Tbay

 

TBAY, thanks for your valuable input. I just signed up for bellcurves. Do you also recommend the verbal portion of the bellcurves prep material?

 

Thanks.

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TBAY, thanks for your valuable input. I just signed up for bellcurves. Do you also recommend the verbal portion of the bellcurves prep material?

 

Thanks.

I didn't use the verbal section at all so I cannot speak on that. I have a simple recommendation for quant: do EVERY problem (homework and drills included) and read ALL of the explanations (even the ones that you get right). They may approach problems in a way that you didn't see before and you can add another method of attack to you arsenal. Practice on there and you use TM (and GPREP) and you'll see how you progress. I know that you'll be okay ShakeVT.

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Awesome Job!!! Stories like yours will help many who are stuck on not believing that they can do it. Thanks for sharing your story. Very inspirational.

 

Thanks for your words. The point of my initial post was to inspire. I remember how I,in the early days, would read debriefs on this site and get overwhelmed by posts like this:

 

"I finished my test today. I scored a 780 after 1 month of prep. Should I retake? My practice test scores were:

 

Kaplan: 790 (2 days of prep)

MGMAT: 760 (2 weeks of prep)

 

GPREP1: 770 (3 weeks of prep)

GPREP2: 790 (night before GMAT)

 

Actual: 780

 

HTH

 

This gave me no hope! But when I saw a person who scored

 

Kaplan: 600

MGMAT: 630

GPREP1: 640

GPREP2: 660

 

Actual: 700

 

I felt that I could do it too. Honestly, my scores were lower than these but I had already convinced myself that I was going to keep at it until I crossed that 7ft hurdle. When I post, I want that person who is struggling through problems nightly to know that if keeps grinding, he'll be here to.

 

Forever grinding,

 

Tbay

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The site has plenty of tough problems that will prepare you for the GMAT. My quant rose from Q41 to Q48 by using bellcurves. I already knew the material, but I became more comfortable and confident by going through the questions and drills on the site. Last I checked you were at Q46. The questions on the GMAT (at least my test) were not on TM's level. To increase your score, you really must understand the concept being tested--and bellcurves did that for me. You literally begin to see problems differently and you cut out 2-3 steps. I didn't believe that I was making any progress on the site until I took a practice test about 2 weeks after using it. I scored Q50 (I saw a few repeats), but that wasn't the impressive part. What impressed me was that I could see the mistakes that I would've made had I not been practicing the way that I had been. The tricks that the GMAT used became obvious and I was able to move past them and into the harden bin Qs. Once you progress into that zone you'll be fine because you're practicing on this site. You have to knock down the "middle" questions to makeit there though.

 

I highly recommend it (in conjunction with TM of course) to those who are stuggling in the quant area. The exercises help you really LEARN the concepts and develop a new way to think about attacking problems. Let me know whether you have anymore quastions.

 

Tbay

 

Hi Tbay,

 

I suck at quant and with jus' 2 and half weeks left for me to go for my real Gmat, I really need to get my score rolling from 37 odd to 48-49. Would u recommend bellcurve to me as well. I have Scoretop VIP question sets with me. However, they seem very tough. Any idea if they are reflective of the true GMAT level. Scoretop is primarily focused on Number theory (so far). Any suggestions to improve Math are welcome.

 

Regards :(

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Tbay your awesome man and a true inspiration. I am gonna give it one more shot.

 

While doing bellcurves were you also doing math problems on the TM site? Or do you feel if I focus on bellcurves and also do other practice tests like mgmat that I am okay?

 

thanks bro....

 

I used bellcurves mainly and did a FEW Qs on TM toward the end of my month. When bellcurves gave me a weak explanation, I would post the Q on TM. You already know everything Shake, so I don't think that you need to stress about practice tests. If you do have to complete a practice test, try to use GPREP because this will keep you familiar with interface (bellcurves is just so different from what you've been doing for so long). I know that you've exhausted GPREP, but look at the Qs as though they were new and apply your new methods to them. Try to spot the mistakes that you would've made. I only took one practice during the month that I used bellcurves (I took one before I started using it). I focused solely on the problems (homework and drills) on that site and came to TM to brush up on my weakness. Do everything (or as much as you can) on the site and you will be okay because you already have a good control of the material. Make sure that you read your explanations AND DO NOT NEGLECT YOUR VERBAL. I had the same verbal as you going into my 3rd shot and increased it by 1 point (had I focused on that too, I would have scored higher). There is no point in killing the quant to only be bested by the verbal. Try to spend a little time on Verbal too. I'm pulling for you.

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Hi Tbay,

 

I suck at quant and with jus' 2 and half weeks left for me to go for my real Gmat, I really need to get my score rolling from 37 odd to 48-49. Would u recommend bellcurve to me as well. I have Scoretop VIP question sets with me. However, they seem very tough. Any idea if they are reflective of the true GMAT level. Scoretop is primarily focused on Number theory (so far). Any suggestions to improve Math are welcome.

 

Regards :(

 

If by scoretop VIP Qs you mean the SETS, then they are pretty good. I'd use bellcurves, the SETS (for verbal) and GPREP. 2.5 weeks isn't that long, but we all have different learning capabilities. If your fundamentals are right, then I'd say go ahead and sign up. You have to set a schedule and stick to it EVERYDAY. You don't have the cushion to miss a day. If you can't hit it everyday for a few hours (which isn't that hard to do), then I don't that you enough time to really benefit from the site (there are over 1200 problems on that site!) You can always use it free of charge for one week. I don't know about you, but I needed explanations to my wrong Qs (and not the typical one-line responses that you find on TM). Bellcurves supplies this and that helped me tremendously. Sign up for the free week, do the SETS and continuously do GPREP (and TM).

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